Please, not another first-round Dolphins running back

Let's see if I have this right: The only NFL team over the past decade to expend three first-round draft picks on running backs is the popular choice of mock drafts to use a fourth top pick on one?

On what planet does this make sense?

Doesn't anyone listen to the great historians say those who don't study history are bound to keep missing the playoffs and drafting running backs in the first round?

Surely, the Dolphins' front office sees the obvious problem here. Surely, they're smarter than a bunch of mock drafters, who at this time of year are a scourge on the earth, like locusts or fantasy-league baseball players.

Surely, the Dolphins won't draft Alabama running back Mark Ingram at No. 15, which is far different than saying they couldn't use him. They don't have one starting-caliber running back right now. They need two to play in today's NFL.

So the issue isn't Ingram. The issue is if a running back is the best play with the 15th overall pick.

He was the Packers' sixth-round rookie who started for the Super Bowl champs by year's end after the two running backs ahead of him got hurt. But don't just take that one example of the risk of injury and the small difference between NFL-quality backs.

Here are three more examples: Houston's Arian Foster, Kansas City's Jamaal Charles and Atlanta's Michael Turner. They were the leading rushers in the league last year. Foster wasn't drafted. Charles was a third- and Turner a fifth-round pick.

Sooner or later, everyone has to realize the value of a running back isn't what it was in your daddy's NFL. Hopefully, the Dolphins realize it sooner.

Dave Wannstedt traded the Dolphins' No. 1 picks in 2002 and 2003 for Ricky Williams. Nick Saban used the second pick overall in 2005 to take Ronnie Brown.

You could go crazy asking how a team that needed a quarterback kept using its top picks on running backs.

This isn't a knock on Williams or Brown. Both were very good to, in Ricky's case, great at times. So the issue isn't about evaluating them so much as evaluating the evaluators who took them. And wondering what's next.

The New York Jets showed a more pragmatic model to find a running back tandem. They drafted Shonn Greene in the third round, then added veteran LaDainian Tomlimson. That was enough.

Why not go that route? Veteran free-agent DeAngelo Williams has talked about coming to the Dolphins. Then use the third-round pick on one of a stable of runners to complement him.

And the first pick? They have to look at quarterback. If General Manager Jeff Ireland thinks Ryan Mallett or Christian Ponder is a franchise quarterback, he has to make one of them the pick no matter the pressure to win now. As this franchise has shown, everything's pointless without one.

If Ireland isn't sold, then a guard like Mike Pouncey looks like a better choice than a running back. He'll last longer. He'll play every down. On an interior line with expensive misses, it's time to find a long-term answer.

Plus, look at the way the NFL is going. Three defensive tackles are slated to be taken before the Dolphins pick. Why? Because more teams are finding the way to pressure quarterbacks up the middle. Which puts guards at a premium.

No matter what, running backs aren't a premium in today's NFL. The only thing stranger than using three No. 1 picks in the last decade on running backs would be using a fourth.